Yes Means Yes Blog Tour!

The editors and contributors of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (Seal Press / January 2009) will be participating in a blog tour starting today. Join Jessica Valenti, Jaclyn Friedman, Cara Kulwicki, Samhita Mukhopadhyay, and Miriam Perez for a 3PM livechat on Feministing to kick things off.

Below is a listing of the tour as it progresses:

Feministing - 2/2
Kickoff livechat with Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti, Miriam Perez, Samhita Mukhopadhyay & Cara Kulwicki

The F-Word - 2/3
Q&A with Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

RH Reality Check - 2/4
Live chat with Julia Serano & Latoya Peterson

Our Bodies Our Blog - 2/5
Q&A with Brad Perry & Lisa Jervis

Shakesville - 2/9
Live chat with Jaclyn Friedman

Scarleteen - 2/10
Heather Corinna on the notion that post-feminism, young women are expected to have a LOT easier time with the yesses, with their sexuality, but that that simply is often not so, in part because they have a whole new set of challenges to grapple with.

Angry Black Bitch - 2/11
Q&A with Tiloma Jayasinghe

Shapely Prose - 2/12
Q&A with Kimberly Springer

Bitch Ph.D. - 2/16
Guest blogging with Jaclyn Friedman & Jessica Valenti

Shameless - 2/17
Q&A with Jill Filipovic

IMPACT - 2/18
Q&A with Anastasia Higginbotham

Radical Doula - 2/19
Q&A with Hazel/Cedar Troost

Feministe - 2/20
Grand finale conversation: Rachel Kramer Bussel, Toni Amato, Javacia Harris, Kate Harding, Stacey May Fowles, Hanne Blank, Heather Corinna

students expelled for sexual orientation

Yep, that's the word, from an article in today's SF Chronicle.

Two students who were presumed to be lesbians were expelled from California Lutheran High School for their presumed sexual orientation. They were interviewed by the school's directors, suspended based on their answers, and then expelled a month later.

According to Justice Betty Richli, "The whole purpose of sending one's child to a religious school is to ensure that he or she learns even secular subjects within a religious framework."

Way to go, Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Bernardino. If Proposition 8 got you riled up, then this story should send you through the roof. According to Justice Richli, secular education is anti-gay. As if we needed more evidence that religious organizations are in the Dark Ages where issues of civil rights are concerned.

For the past month I've been going to Glide Memorial Church, where gays and lesbians worship alongside their straight counterparts. For the past five years my dad has been the pastor of a GLBTQ church in Palm Springs. It seems odd that there should be so few places where gays and lesbians can worship freely---and out. It's past time for churches to embrace gays and lesbians as equals and get over the toxic rhetoric and belief systems that this ever-visible segment of the population is somehow less-than or damned to hell. The Catholic and Mormon churches already made a huge mess in California, funneling money and energy that could have been so much better used into a campaign that strips loving partners from basic civil rights. Now this Lutheran high school is stepping up to condemn its gay students. As if navigating your sexuality in high school isn't hard enough.

When is it going to stop?

---Brooke

36th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade

Today is the 36th Anniversary of Roe V. Wade and I felt it was fitting to post some of the news that I've heard regarding this event, as well as discuss a book that encompasses it all: Abortion Under Attack: Women on the Challenges Facing Choice, edited by Krista Jacob.

"Our Bodies, Ourselves" has a really nice round up of all the political news surrounding this anniversary and I urge you to take a look. There is a lot going on, including the possibility of President Obama reversing many of the anti-abortion policies that were enacted by George W. Bush, the annual March for Life on the National Mall, and a Weeklong Blog-a-Thon. "Bloggers at Amplify, a youth-led online community are commemorating Roe’s anniversary by posting stories about what the right to a legal and safe abortion means to them and to women around the world and by sharing ideas for how we can preserve our right to choose. The blog-a-thon continues through Jan. 27." Go to Our Bodies, Ourselves for all the links.

Today is great day to talk about a book that Seal Press published in 2006. Abortion Under Attack addresses a spectrum of personal and social influences, ranging from dealing with remorse to the impact that economics, race, and culture have on a woman's choice to have an abortion. Krista Jacob, a longtime advocate for reproductive rights and former abortion counselor, compiled an impressive collection of writings by a diverse group of pro-choice activists who go beyond the same old analysis of reproductive rights to document and deconstruct the issues currently facing the pro-choice movement. This book is perfect to read at a time like this.

Today is a day to educate ourselves and each other. It's a day to remember what this anniversary means.

Happy Anniversary Roe V Wade,

Eva

Oh happy day!

It's hard not to be in a good mood this morning following the awesome and monumental swearing in of President Barack Obama. We made it! It's been a long, downward-spiraling eight years of Bush, and so I had to smile yesterday when I saw this in downtown SF:


So as to leave on a positive rather than a kicking-Bush-to-the-curb note (as gleeful as I feel), can I just say I wish I could have been in DC this morning. Two million people. Yes we can!


Adios Bush! Bienvenido Obama, y gracias a Dios!!

---Brooke